University

17 Mar 10

Exeter College's Turl Street site has been occupied for nearly 700 years.

Exeter College is to break free of the boundaries of its Turl Street site, which it has occupied for nearly 700 years, with a new, additional site on Walton Street, Oxford. The site will be developed for research, teaching and student accommodation.

Exeter has acquired the site from Ruskin College, an independent college based in Oxford that specialises in providing educational opportunities for adults with few or no qualifications. Ruskin College plans to consolidate its activities at its Headington campus and so has sold the site to Exeter.

The transfer of the site will strengthen links between Oxford University and Ruskin College. As part of the deal, Exeter and Ruskin will develop a programme of joint academic, cultural and social activities; and in order to ensure that Ruskin College’s outreach and educational work continues in central Oxford, Exeter will give Ruskin a lease of space in the Walton Street building.

The contract transferring ownership was signed today.

Frances Cairncross, Rector of Exeter College, said: ‘We are immensely excited to acquire this historic site, associated for so many years with broadening educational access and creating a path for students from non-traditional backgrounds to enter university.

‘Not only does the acquisition of the Walton Street site give Exeter College a “third quadrangle”, helping us to break free of the space constraints of our historic home on Turl Street and allowing us to develop new accommodation and study opportunities for our students, it also gives us the opportunity to work with one of the pioneers of adult education. Ruskin College will be an inspiration for our continuing work to encourage applications from promising students from all educational backgrounds.’

Once Ruskin College consolidates its activities in Headington by the end of September 2012, Exeter will undertake a substantial programme of refurbishment at Walton Street to create high-quality teaching and research space, plus student rooms. 

Exeter College is one the oldest in Oxford, and has occupied its site in Turl Street since 1315. Its alumni include JRR Tolkien, William Morris, Alan Bennett and Philip Pullman, who based on it the fictional Jordan College in the His Dark Materials trilogy. William Morris had close links with art critic and social thinker John Ruskin, after whom Ruskin College - as well as Oxford University’s own Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art - is named.

Ruskin College aims to recruit and develop adults who seek a ‘second chance’ in education. The college was established in 1899 to provide educational opportunities for working class people, who were denied access to university. Its most famous alumnus is John Prescott MP.

Professor Audrey Mullender, Principal of Ruskin College, said: ‘Today's signing is not an end for Ruskin but a beginning. It gives us the resources we need to invest in a major new development of our beautiful site in Old Headington, where we will create a state-of-the-art college for the future. It also opens a fruitful new chapter in our century-long relationship with the University of Oxford and we look forward very much to working more closely with the staff and students of Exeter College.’